BJP rails against Ranganath Mishra Commission report

Dubbing the Ranganath Mishra Commission report as a "curse", the BJP on Sunday said it deserved to be "thrown into a dust-bin" and vowed to protect the rights of backward classes at a huge convention in Bangalore.

Dubbing the Ranganath Mishra Commission report as a "curse", the BJP on Sunday said it deserved to be "thrown into a dust-bin" and vowed to protect the rights of backward classes at a huge convention in Bangalore.

Senior BJP leaders said the party would hold a massive agitation if the UPA government implemented the commission's recommendations.

Attacking the "votebank and electoral politics" of the Congress, BJP President Nitin Gadkari told the party-organised convention of backward classes on the sprawling Palace grounds that the party will not accept the report "at any cost".

The report, if implemented, would cut into the reservation of OBCs. "The BJP will oppose it with all its might", he said.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said BJP will not allow "snatching" of reservation from the OBCs, and also sought to remind the Congress that then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had opposed reservation for converted SCs and STs.

"Throw it (the Commission report) into waste basket", Chouhan said claiming he gave a similar treatment to Sachar Committee report when the Centre asked states to give details of Muslims and Christians working there.

Senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu termed the report as a "curse on the backward classes" and "worse loss" for them, while HN Ananth Kumar also argued strongly against it.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa announced that the BJP government in the state would earmark in its next budget Rs 1,000 crore for development and welfare of backward classes, as against Rs 640 crore allotted this year.

He also said he would spend last Saturday of every month in a district and a village to address people's problems and to take remedial measures there itself.

Similarly, he would visit district headquarters twice in a month (on Fridays) and the villages to interact with officials and "provide justice on the spot".

Meanwhile, Gadkari and Yeddyurappa also appealed to the people to make a success tomorrow's Bharat bandh to protest against UPA government's "failure to check rising prices".